Tension vs Compression

I think it might be useful to look at the current struggle in architectural terms. Lets start with human nature:

The alpha male struggle for dominance.

Here the West has a huge advantage because democracy allows the formation of the collective alpha male. Now all alpha male struggle in a polity of any significant size is about gaining allies. What makes the Western version superior is that within the polity it is done by attraction rather than coercion. Tension rather than compression.

Compressive forces are subject to buckling strength limitations - the span of control in managerial terms. This is expressed as slenderness ratios when speaking of architecture. Tension is only subject to tensile strength limitations and can be extended to any practical limit. Tension allows for independent but coordinated action. People under compression must be watched. And some one must watch the watchers. The internal organization of compressive societies takes a lot of effort that is not required by tensile societies.

In fact the universe its self is held together by the tension of gravity acting on islands of compression: planets and stars.

In a compressive society once there is no one giving orders the society falls apart. In a tensile society the remaining elements simply reform and continue.

The tensile society is defined by its chosen path. The compressive society by its leader. Which can hold together better under the stress of pieces gone missing?